There are famously almost no motorways in Romania (and there are not likely to be for some time), and the country’s trains are notoriously slow (and surprisingly expensive). Getting from A to B in this country therefore takes far longer and costs far more than it should.

So bad is Romania’s transport infrastructure that – in jest – President Traian Basescu said earlier this year that until things improved, foreign visitors should ‘take a helicopter and avoid the roads’ if they wanted to see Romania.

It was a bad joke, in bad taste… but you know what? He was on the right lines.

For if taking a helicopter is out of reach of even the most free-spending tourist, that other, more common form of aerial transport: the aeroplane, is not.

Romania's new high-speed trains could look like this

Given that investment in the railways will be costly and take forever, with a few tweaks in pricing and more competition on main routes there is no reason why flying could not replace the train as the primary form of inter-city transport in Romania.

In fact, on a number of routes the plane is already very competitively priced when compared with the train. (We know because it’s that time of year when we start looking into these things ahead of our summer trip to the in-laws in the far north of the country).

Romania currently has no fewer than 13 operational airports (including our favourite, Satu Mare, ahem, International): Bucharest Baneasa, Bucharest Otopeni, Arad, Bacau, Baia Mare, Constanta, Craiova, Iasi, Oradea, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Suceava, Targu Mures, Timisoara.

However, just two airlines currently operate internal flights: national carrier Tarom (which flies from Bucharest to Baia Mare, Iasi, Oradea, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Suceava, Targu Mures and Timisoara) and Carpat Air (which flies from Timisoara to Arad, Bacau, Cluj, Constanta, Craiova, Iasi and Sibiu).

There are no flights to and from Brasov, which famously has no airport, and Tarom operates no internal flights that do not have Bucharest as the departure or arrival city.

We have no idea how much it will cost to build a high-speed rail network across Romania. Hundreds of billions of euros probably. To keep fares down huge annual subsidies would also be needed.

Instead, why not take a fraction of that money and use it to subsidise air travel instead? Bring down the price of a ticket to €20 or so each way and fly people around the country. Make the airports currently charging stupidly high landing fees (yes that’s you, Cluj) play ball or lose their licenses; Build cheap, basic airports at Brasov, Galati, and other places not currently served by air. Operating subsidies would not even fall foul of EU rules, as long as a separate company was hacked off Tarom to operate internal flights.

Even if this does not happen (and we are dreaming aloud here; it won’t) the plane is still a real option if you are visiting Romania and need to get from Bucharest to the provinces and vice versa. And do it quickly. No, the plane is not as romantic or enjoyable as the train, but then if you only have a week (or less) to see the best of Romania you do not want to spend half your time on trains moving at a snail’s pace.

You will need to book in advance to get the best prices, but €52 for a Bucharest – Satu Mare single is well worth a little forward planning. The train costs 188 lei and takes over 16 hours. Of course, you need to get to the airport and home again at other end, but even allowing two hours to do so, the plane is still 12 hours quicker than the train.

Other prices for internal flights in Romania this summer (all available for July, at the time of writing, and including all taxes/charges):

Bucharest – Cluj €52
Bucharest – Sibiu €44
Bucharest – Suceava €46
Bucharest – Targu Mures €44
Timisoara – Constanta 323 lei

Comparable train fares:

Bucharest – Cluj 137 lei (journey time 9 hours 51 minutes)
Bucharest – Sibiu 103 lei (journey time 6 hours 53 minutes)
Bucharest – Suceava 194 lei (overnight sleeper)
Bucharest – Targu Mures 133 (journey time 9 hours 56 minutes)
Timisoara – Constanta 190 lei (journey time 13 hours 3 minutes)

The plane it is then.

Met some foreigners last night who had paid over 150 lei to get from Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport into the city centre. Silly boys.

The interesting thing was however, that they did not realise they had paid too much until we pointed out to them what they should have paid (no more than 50 lei). After all, if you have just arrived on a plane from Frankfurt (or London, or Paris) then paying the equivalent of €40 for a ride into town will not seem extortionately expensive.

The fact remains however that it is extortionately expensive, as even though most taxi companies (but not all) have recently increased their tarif from 1.39 lei/km to 1.69/km, there should never, ever be an excuse for paying 3.50 lei/km:

How much?

We should point out that the taxi above (which we pictured yesterday near our home, not at the airport, by the way) is official and legitimate, and as the Aeroport logo suggests it is officially sanctioned by the city’s airport authorities to pick up fares right outside departures. It is still a rip-off though. An officially sanctioned one.

We are not just being cheap here. (Or are we?)

The price for a taxi in Bucharest is from from 1.39 lei/km to 1.69/km. Anything more is too much. Would you pay more for a beer in a Bucharest bar than you were asked to because ‘it’s so much cheaper than at home?’ Of course you wouldn’t. You think yourself lucky and pay the market rate for a beer.

Anyway, all of this is more proof that the much-hoped reform of taxis at Otopeni was little more than hot air.

Nevermind, with a Bucharest In Your Pocket erm, in your pocket, you need never pay over the odds again. Here is what we suggest when arriving at Otopeni:

The easiest way to get a cheap taxi is simply to walk through to departures (turn right as you exit baggage claim) and take a regular taxi as it drops off somebody else. There is a regular stream of these and you should never have to wait too long.

More on arriving at Otopeni here. More on Bucharest’s taxis here.

A couple of days ago we went to meet Mrs. Bucharest Life at Otopeni Airport, and while waiting (the flight was late) we got thirsty.

Being an airport we knew we would be paying over the odds at the kiosk in arrivals, but even so, we were shocked by the price they were asking for a can of Coke… 8 lei. Almost €2 for a can of Coke. Obscene.

Even the most fitze clubs in the city don’t charge that.

Fortunately, underneath arrivals at Otopeni is a small Billa supermarket, selling food and drink at (almost) regular prices.

May the kiosk in arrivals go out of business very soon.

*Do let us know if you’ve spotted an even more expensive Coke in Romania.

Bucharest will not be getting a new airport anytime soon, according to this report published by a local news agency yesterday.

While news that the Romanian government had cancelled yet another major infrastructure project came as no surprise at all (last week the government was embarrassed into admitting that a major deal to build part of the badly-needed motorway from Bucharest-Brasov had fallen through), the news that the government had even been thinking of building another airport to serve Bucharest did come as a bit of a shock.

For a start, Bucharest does not do all that badly on the airport front.

There are currently two airports serving the city, Otopeni and Baneasa.

Happy holidaymakers returning home to Bucharest's Baneasa Airport

Now, while we will happily declare that we consider Baneasa to be one of Europe’s worst airports, it does have the advantage of being just minutes (traffic allowing, of course) from the city centre.

Otopeni on the other hand – though it is further away from central Bucharest – is a first class airport. Small (though it is currently being extended to allow for a Schengen-only departure and arrivals terminal should Romania be admitted to the Schengen-zone next year) it boasts two runways and one of the most enviable punctuality records in Europe.

Of course, everything costs a fortune – from coffee to taxis – and a Tourist Information Office would help first-time visitors, but if you take Otopeni for what it is: an airport, as in a place that should facilitate the transit of as many people as it can in as short a time as possible, then Otopeni is a terrific airport.

(Oh, and a proper train link to the city would not go a miss, and, as we have pointed out before, could be done very easily at little cost).

Otopeni could well be improved, Baneasa could be greatly improved, but does Bucharest really need another airport? No: not as a priority, anyhow.

Brasov, on the other hand, if it ever wants to become one of the great European travel destinations, does. To even have considered building a new airport to serve the capital while Brasov continues to do without was just plain daft.

Indeed, if asked what one thing Romania should to do to boost incoming tourism, our answer is the same now as it has been for years: build an airport in Brasov.

As we discovered on Saturday morning, the difference between getting a taxi at Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport now and getting one before the rules changed on February 1st is that there is no difference. At least not in any real sense. The information we publish about arriving at Bucharest’s airports in Bucharest In Your Pocket and online at inyourpocket.com/bucharest is valid.

The only real difference to before is that instead of Fly Taxi having a monopoly, taxis from certain other companies can now wait outside arrivals too. On Saturday morning though, we saw only cars from Fly Taxi and Grant Taxi. Both are honest and will not rip you off, though it should be noted that they do charge about a third more than bog-standard Bucharest taxi companies.

Nothing else appears to have changed.

You are still besieged by aggressive, rogue taxi drivers as you exit baggage claim, you can still (as we do) walk through to Departures and pick up a bog-standard cab as it drops somebody off, and you can still take the perfectly good bus.

The only thing you can’t do is call a taxi and have it pick you up from the car park: you need to meet it at Departures or at the end of the ramp leading down from Arrivals (by the Marriott clock).